The Second Time Around
by propertyofjanerizzoli
Summary: After attending boarding school for nine years, Maura returns to her hometown for her senior year and gets a second chance to be with her best friend and childhood sweetheart.


**A/N: This is based on a ficlet in my Teen Rizzles Ficlet Series that I posted last year. I received a few requests to make it its own story and I felt inspired to do so. Basically, I'm a sucker for Teen Rizzles fluff. :) I hope you enjoy it!**

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With less than a week before the start of another school year, Angela had finally convinced her three teenage kids that they had put off school clothes shopping for as long as they possibly could. It wasn't that they disliked shopping, but shopping for school clothes with their mother meant she'd comment on every article of clothing they chose and encourage them to purchase something else instead.

"I don't need any new jeans," Jane tried to convince her mom while they were sifting through jeans in the juniors section of a department store. "I bought some last month."

"The ripped ones that look like you splashed bleach on them?" Angela asked. "Those jeans are the reason I'm not letting you shop without me."

A pair of dark jeggings caught Jane's eye and she was about to grab them until her mom made a comment about jeggings not being real jeans. "They're comfortable," Jane argued. "And I'm going to be the one wearing them."

"They're too thin. I'm not going to spend fifty dollars on pants that'll be worn down in less than a week." Angela left the jean shelves and went over to the racks where the dresses were hung and arranged by color. "Janie, how about one of these?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "And when would I wear one of those?"

"For your senior picture," Angela suggested. "You'd look so beautiful."

Jane looked at the price tag on the sleeveless, black dress her mom was now holding. "This dress costs fifty dollars," Jane pointed out. "You'd spend fifty dollars on a dress that I won't even wear, but you won't spend the same amount on jeggings that I'd wear all the time?"

"Why do we have to look at girls clothes?" Tommy whined. "Me and Frankie should be able to do something else while you shop with Jane."

Jane was about to tell her brothers it'd be better shopping without them when someone caught her eye just outside the store. "Ma, shop with Frankie and Tommy. I'll catch up to you guys later."

"Janie—"

"There's a girl," Frankie interrupted his mom. "With Jane, there's always some girl."

But it wasn't just some girl. Nine years had passed since the last time she saw her and, although her appearance had changed, she'd still recognize her anywhere. "Maura!"

"Jane!" Maura smiled. "It's so nice to see you."

Both girls stood in awkward silence as they internally debated whether or not they should hug. _People hug when they reunite with old friends. Shouldn't we?_ Jane thought, but the longer they stood staring at each other the more Jane felt as if the moment had passed.

"What brings you back to Boston?" Jane asked to break the awkward silence.

"My parents," Maura averted her eyes. "Now that it's senior year, they want me closer to home so they could share all of my senior year milestones with me. It's the digital age. They could just as easily have shared them with me online."

"Parents," Jane shook her head. She wanted to tell Maura she could relate but her mom not letting her buy jeggings paled in comparison to Maura's parents making her attend a new school for her senior year. "Do you still have that turtle?" Jane asked to add levity to their conversation.

" _Tortoise_ , Jane," Maura emphasized. "His name is Bass. You were there when my parents brought him home."

"I know," Jane smiled. "I just wanted to see if that could still get a rise out of you after all these years."

"In answer to your question, I still have him."

Jane recalled the first time she tried to pet Bass. Maura had warned her against putting her finger near his mouth, but she did anyway and his tiny mouth clamped down on Jane's finger. "Do you think he'd still bite me?"

Maura laughed for the first time during their conversation and Jane couldn't help noticing how beautiful her childhood friend had become. The once gangly child was practically a woman now and Jane found herself wondering what it'd be like to kiss Maura just as she had wondered when they were eight.

"Jane—"

"You're looking at my pupils, aren't you?" Jane asked in disbelief. "You still do that?" She tried to cover her eyes, but Maura reached out to grab her hands, holding them long enough for Jane to realize it wasn't just a friendly gesture.

"That's how I knew you had a crush on me when we were eight," Maura pointed out. "That and you picked a rose for me. I still have the petals pressed in a photo album."

It was the moment Jane felt she had waited a lifetime for. She wanted to ask her out. She wanted to kiss her. She wanted to do anything she could to convince Maura they could now have what they were too young to experience all those years ago, but a phone call from her mom interrupted the moment.

"Maura, I have to go," Jane said, but even if it was her turn to shop for clothes, she wasn't ready to part ways with Maura. "If you're not doing anything, maybe you could shop with me…and my mom and my brothers. I'm sure they'd want to see you. And, if you want, we could do something later, too…just if you want to."

"I'd love to, but my mother is picking me up in ten minutes so we could have dinner together," Maura told her. "I took the T here."

Jane tried not to sound disappointed. "Oh."

Maura reached out for her hand. "You could come over after dinner."

"You still at the same house?"

"Sometimes," Maura responded. "My mom still lives at that house, but my mother has an apartment in Beacon Hill. They're separated now."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Maura shrugged. "They've been separated for a year. What bothers me is, now that I'm not in boarding school, I have to alternate each week between my mom's house and my mother's apartment."

"At least you're not alone," Jane said to make her feel better. "I bet half of Central High has the same arrangement. Wait, you _are_ going to Central, right? Your parents aren't putting you in some snooty private school, are they?"

"I'm going to Central. My parents said they want me to have teenage normalcy and they think Central High is going to provide that."

"People there are far from normal," Jane snickered. "But it's cool, I guess. I've never had any problems there. You can hang out with me and Frankie and our friends if you want to."

Before she could get a response from Maura, Jane heard her phone start to ring. _Shit! I forgot it was my turn to pick out clothes._

"Is your mom calling you?"

"Yeah," Jane responded after she sent her mom a text instead of answering the phone. "I really should go before she tries to track me down. Text me your mother's address and I'll meet you there."

Jane and Maura exchanged phone numbers with the intention of meeting at six o'clock. Nothing in particular was planned and they weren't sure what they were going to do once they were at Maura's mother's apartment, but with nine years to catch up on, both girls knew they wouldn't be at a loss for things to talk about.

"You got some girl's number, didn't you?" Frankie asked when his sister returned to the department store.

"She's not just some girl," Jane said defensively.

"Who is she?" Tommy asked.

"Ma, can we shop without Frankie and Tommy?" Jane asked, completely ignoring her brother's question. "I want to talk to you about something in private."

Angela pulled out a ten-dollar bill from her purse and handed it to Frankie. "You boys go get something from the food court. I'll call you when we're ready to leave."

Frankie and Tommy would have left the store without Angela giving them any money, but now that they had money, they left as quickly as they could for fear of Angela changing her mind.

"I was talking to a girl," Jane told her mom once her brothers had left. "And I know you're going to say that I talk to a lot of girls, but I haven't actually dated anyone since me and Carly broke up."

"And you were devastated," Angela reminded her. "That's why your father and I think you should hold off on dating."

"It's Maura," Jane told her. "I know this is going to sound weird to you, but I've never stopped having a crush on her. Even though I didn't see her, I still imagined what she'd be like and what we'd do together and―"

"Janie, I know you're growing up but I don't need to know that."

"Not like that! I've never thought of Maura like that," Jane admitted. "I just want to be with her. I don't even know how I want to be with her, but I want to be with her."

"And you want my permission?"

"She wants to hang out tonight at six. Can I?"

"Just promise me you'll take things slow."

"I promise," Jane said as she sifted through some button-up shirts. Now that Maura was back, she felt as if she should have more than v-neck t-shirts and hoodies in her wardrobe.

"How come Maura is back after all these years?"

"I don't know," Jane shrugged. "Her parents just want her home for senior year." Although Jane knew exactly why Maura was home, she felt as if it wasn't her place to say anything.

So much had changed over the course of nine years and Jane regretted not being a part of Maura's life. They were supposed to write to each other, but after a few months, the letters stopped due to lack of anything to say. They were eight-years-old at the time and Jane wasn't sure how to keep a friendship going with someone she couldn't play with on a regular basis. She had expected Maura to come home for summer break, but Maura's summers were spent taking family vacations at their house in Martha's Vineyard, her mom's parents' house in Vermont, and her mother's parents' house in England. Although Maura never left Jane's mind, too much time had passed between letters and phone calls to just try to contact her out of the blue. Even trying to look her up on social media a couple years ago felt too awkward for Jane so, instead, Maura remained her ideal girl―the girl she secretly longed for, but she was finally back and Jane planned on making life in Boston even better for Maura the second time around.


End file.
